Parisa Sadat Mirnejad - Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Arsalan Golfam - Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Hayat Ameri - Department of Persian Language Studies, Research Center of Persian Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Sahar Bahrami- Khorshid - Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

This paper aims to study ۷ to ۱۲-year-old Persian-speaking children’s comprehension of polysemy through semantics. The research method is descriptive-analytic, and two kinds of methodology in data collection such as documentary resources and fieldwork have been applied. For collecting data, each of the six elementary school grades course books ‘Farsi’ (۲۰۱۸) has been studied and all polysemous words within each of these course books have been extracted. Accordingly, to evaluate polysemy comprehension in children, a multiple-choice test containing two questions was prepared for each grade and asked ۲۵ participants to answer in each grade and each gender from among elementary schools in Tehran. In each grade, ۱۰۰ answers were received and based on the number of correct answers children’s polysemy comprehension was evaluated. These tests were administered under school authorities’ control and children had to answer in ۱۵ minutes. The results show that most children found the polysemous words without problem only within a context and in relation to the collocated words. Also, children can comprehend the exact meaning of polysemous words based on the encyclopedic viewpoint of meaning which is rooted in human social and physical experience. Moreover, children based on their background knowledge differentiate between multiple meanings of polysemous words.

polysemy, encyclopedic knowledge, context, semantics